Mormon Settlement in Arizona: A Record of Peaceful Conquest of the DesertMcClintock, James H.
History
Mormon Settlement in Arizona: A Record of Peaceful Conquest of the Desert
McClintock, James H.
Arizona -- History -- To 1950; Latter Day Saints -- Arizona -- History
In 1880, the Mesa authorities took steps to provide a better highway to
Globe, this with the active cooperation of their friend, Chas. T. Hayden.
Globe was a rich market for agricultural products, yet could be reached
only by way of Florence and the Cane Springs and Pioneer road, over
the summit of the Pinal Mountains, or by way of the almost impassable
Reno Mountain road from McDowell into Tonto Basin, a road that was ridden
in pain, but philosophically, by the members of the Erastus Snow party
that passed in 1878. The idea of 1880 was to get through the Pinal
Mountains, near Silver King. A new part of this route now is being taken
by a State road that starts at Superior, cutting a shelf along the canyon
side of Queen Creek, to establish the shortest possible road between Mesa
and Globe. The first adequate highway ever had from Mesa eastward was the
Roosevelt road, later known as the Apache Trail, built in 1905 by the
Reclamation Service, to connect the valley with Roosevelt, which lies at
the southern point of Tonto Basin.
Hayden's Ferry, Latterly Tempe
Tempe, eight miles east of Phoenix on Salt River, was first known as
Hayden's Ferry. Its founder was Chas. Trumbull Hayden, a pioneer merchant
who early saw the possibilities of development within the Salt River
Valley and who built a flour mill that still is known by his name.
Arizona's Congressman, Carl Hayden, is a son of the pioneer merchant,
miller and ferryman. The name of Tempe (from a valley of ancient Greece)
is credited to Darrell Duppa, a cultured Englishman, who is also
understood to have named Phoenix. It was applied to Hayden's Ferry and
also to a Mexican settlement, something over a half-mile distant, locally
known as San Pablo.
Hayden welcomed the advent of the Mormons, led to the country by Daniel
W. Jones in 1877, and befriended those who followed, thus materially
assisting in the upbuilding of the Lehi and Mesa settlements.
Tempe, as a Mormon settlement, started July 23, 1882, in the purchase by
Benjamin Franklin Johnson, Jos. E. Johnson and relatives, from Hayden, of
eighty acres of land that lay between the ferry and the Mexican town. For
this tract there was paid $3000. The Johnson party left Spring Lake,
Utah, in April and traveled via Lee's Ferry. There was survey of the
property into lots and blocks, and the Johnsons at once started upon the
building of homes. There was included also a small cooperative store. The
foundation was laid for a meeting house, but religious services usually
were held in a bowery or in the district schoolhouse that had been built
before the Saints came.
In the fall of 1882 there arrived a number of families, most of them
Johnsons or relatives. When the Maricopa Stake was organized December 10,
1882, David T. LeBaron was presiding at Tempe. June 15, 1884, Tempe was
organized as a ward, successively headed by Samuel Openshaw and Jas. F.
Johnson.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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